Billion secs = 32 yrs, Trillion secs = 32,000 yrs

Friday, February 11, 2011

Speaker Boehner is wrong, we don’t have to raise the debt ceiling!

Even House Speaker John Boehner is getting into the act. Recently, Boehner stated: “Congress must approve taking on more debt, which currently is growing by more than $4 billion per day. If it doesn't approve raising the ceiling, then the U.S. will default on its loans and lose its standing as the globe's most reliable bet."

Hogwash. The truth is: The United States DOES NOT lack the money to pay its current debt obligations... the problem is we lack the funds to pay our current debt obligations AND spend all of the money our elected officials WANT to squander on their pet projects.

As Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) wrote in the Wall Street Journal recently: "In fact, if Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling, the federal government will still have far more than enough money to fully service our debt. Next year, for instance, about 6.5% of all projected federal government expenditures will go to interest on our debt... why would we ever default? To make absolutely sure, I intend to introduce legislation that would require the Treasury to make interest payments on our debt its first priority in the event that the debt ceiling is not raised."

In other words, living under the current debt ceiling DOESN'T prohibit us from servicing our existing debt... it simply PROHIBITS the federal government from BORROWING and adding more to the national debt. And it forces Congress to do its job and make the tough decision to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.

The American people can no longer afford to be hoodwinked by the false promise of fiscal responsibility. After all, when you enable bad behavior, you only encourage more of it.